Cure for What?
by InsomniacWhoOverslept92
Summary: A Ten and Rose fanfic- It is not very often that the Doctor gets scared- as in really, truly scared- but after a strange encounter on a seemingly normal trip back in time, the Doctor finds himself more frightened than ever before. Meanwhile, Rose is getting more and more concerned. The Doctor is not acting like himself at all, and it may have grave consequences...
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor was NOT asleep. The Doctor didn't EVER sleep.

Well... hardly ever. He was startled into consciousness from the sound of a familiar voice shouting "AHA!"

He opened his eyes to see Rose standing and laughing next to the TARDIS doors, pointing at him.

"What?" he said as he stood up. He realized that he had been sitting on the floor with his head against part of the console. He must've drifted off while tinkering with part of the TARDIS...

"You DO TOO sleep!" Rose said. "You SWORE you never sleep, but..." She stifled another laugh, "You're just as bad as mum!"

"What? Nah. I DON'T sleep," he waived his hand dismissively. "Plus your mum isn't that bad. No, really! I've never seen her even taking a nap! Well... Before noon..." He tried not to chuckle, realizing the hilarity of what he'd just said. "When did you get here, I didn't even hear you come in?"

Rose grinned, then blushed. "I, um... Just got here." The Doctor looked her in the eyes and she diverted hers. Something told him that that wasn't quite accurate, and with that thought, he started to worry about what he looked like asleep. Did he snore? Did he drool in his sleep?!

"So," Rose said, "where are you gonna take me? You've been really... Secretive about it." She raised an eyebrow.

The Doctor smiled brightly "Oh, I've been planning this trip for quite a while..." He eyed Rose. "How about we... Start at the beginning?"

Rose looked at him quizzically as he began flipping levers and pressing various buttons on the TARDIS console.

"I thought," the Doctor said, "of that time when we saw the end of the world... " he trailed off.

"Yeah?" Rose asked.

The Doctor grinned even wider. "I thought now, I'd show you... The very beginning."

Rose's eyes widened. The Doctor waived his hand at the windows of the TARDIS doors. Rose went over to the window. She gasped.

"The very BEGINNING of the universe. All of them actually," he said as he joined her at the window.

Through the TARDIS windows was a sight to behold. Stars forming and burning into existence, newly formed planets just starting their very first orbit around the young star that would soon come to be known as the Sun.

"Woah" breathed Rose.

"And this is only ONE UNIVERSE!" exclaimed the Doctor as he ran back to the console. "There are THOUSANDS more! This is before the human race even existed. Even the Silurians! In fact..." He glanced toward the window, "This is the time JUST before any life in the galaxy. And I believe," he smiled wider, turning a switch, "before any life in MOST ALL galaxies."

"Oh my god" whispered Rose. She turned around and ran over to the doctor and tackled him in a swinging hug. "It's BEAUTIFUL!" She hugged him harder, then ran back to the window.

The Doctor hearts were buzzing with happiness, his smile as wide as it could be. He loved traveling with Rose, seeing her wonder.

He turned back to the console.

His Rose.

He smiled, trying to hide his expression.

"Um, Doctor?" said Rose at the window. "Are you sure this is before all life in the galaxy?"

"Yep!" Replied the Doctor.

Well, then..." Rose started, "What's this?" She looked confused.

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows and ran over to the window, and what he saw he could not believe. He frowned. "That's impossible..."

Around the newly formed planets, he could see it, just on the edge of the brand new galaxy.

It was a ship.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, it's there, so I... guess it is possible?" said Rose, looking over at the Doctor. He had that look on his face again, the look he got every time they ran into something like this- impossible.

The Doctor pulled out his glasses and put them on, almost as if he needed them to confirm what was right before their eyes. "This isn't right! There is absolutely NO WAY... The planets are still solidifying themselves, it... No..." He ran back over to the console and checked the screen.

"Is it possible we've arrived a little, TINY bit later than you were expecting?" Rose said.

After a long pause, the Doctor finally looked over at Rose. "We're right where I intended for us to go, the beginning of time." He had an intense, slightly worried look on his face, and Rose could just see it, edged into the corners of his mouth, reflected in his eyes.

Rose frowned, looking at the Doctor's expression. "Well, obviously it's someone out here. Somehow..." She took on a lighter expression, and said "I mean, WE'RE here, aren't we? Maybe...they came the same way as us, traveling in time..."

The Doctor didn't answer, glanced once again out the TARDIS windows, then looked back at Rose and grew a smile on his face. "Well, why don't we go pay these new time travelers a visit, eh?" He threw a few levers on the TARDIS console. "We could even have tea!"

Rose laughed. "The diplomatic approach to everything. I like it."

Once the TARDIS engines stopped, they opened the doors. The first thought that occurred to Rose was about the smell. It smelled like a hospital- full of disinfectant. She wrinkled her nose. Ahead of them was a long corridor with boxes on either side.

As they walked down the length of it, the Doctor ripped open one of the boxes and pointed the blue light of his sonic screwdriver in. "Syringes" he said. Rose ripped open another box. She pulled out a latex glove.

"Are we in a hospital, Doctor? A pre- life hospital?"

The Doctor snorted. "Hospitals EXIST because of life. Why would they bring one all the way back here? Unless the crew are hurt or something... But this is so much BIGGER than a sick bay..." He frowned. They continued walking.

They had just reached a new room when suddenly a set of hands grabbed Rose, coming from somewhere she hadn't been looking. She screamed. The Doctor had been grabbed to, and he immediately started struggling with the unknown persons that had him. They started to drag Rose away.

"ROSE!" yelled the Doctor. Rose looked at him, frightened, as she was dragged further away, screaming "DOCTOR!"

She saw the Doctor manage to get a nice punch in to one of his captors, and he almost got away. But then another of them managed to get a grip on his arm again and stuck him in the neck suddenly with some sort of a needle. The Doctor swayed, blinking a few times quickly. He said " Rose, don't..." then his legs collapsed out from under him, and he fell limp in the arms of his captors, his head sagging, eyes closed.

"DOCTOR!" She cried, but they had finally managed to pull her away into another room. Her last glimpse of the Doctor was of him being dragged away, clearly unconscious.

They dragged Rose into a room with some sort of light flickering from somewhere nearby. Now that she could see her captors, they looked almost human... Until one of them suddenly grew wings and flew away. The remaining two who had helped drag her into the room moved her over to the wall, which had several iron chains attached to pairs of handcuffs. They cuffed her wrists and started to walk away. As worried as Rose was, she had the presence of mind to listen in as best she could to what they were saying as they left her sight...

"I don't know how we found some here, but we did!" the one furthest away said.

"Yeah, interesting, that. Do we even need her?" Said the other, jerking his head back at Rose.

"She smells human..." The first one replied "...Of course we don't need her. Humans are a dime a dozen. But...still, we'd better wait till the boss says for sure what to do with her." He yawned. "But hey, ya know, that other one? HE smells like a rare catch. Definitely not human. I wonder what..." Their voices trailed off as they walked out of hearing range.

Rose was worried. They must've sedated the Doctor or something. And they were taking him to... Well, wherever they were taking him, Rose didn't like it. And that one who said something about the Doctor being a "rare catch"? That couldn't be good. She pulled at her chained wrists, but the iron was well worked into the floor it seemed...

"You won't get those off. They're cemented in at least a foot deep into the concrete.." Said a voice nearby. Rose nearly jumped out of her skin. Sitting about seven or eight feet away was a young woman chained to the floor just like Rose, with dark, dark brown hair and green eyes, watching Rose with a steady expression.

"Are you... Who..." said Rose, starting to move away.

The girl held up her shackled hands. "Human, just human, don't worry. Not gonna grow wings or claws or breathe fire or anything."

Rose relaxed only slightly, eyeing the girl warily. She looked to have bad acne, and her hair was a mess. But still, she was chained, just like Rose herself. Maybe she truly wasn't one of them.

"What is this place... This ship?" Rose said.

"It's a ship?!" Replied the girl. "A real proper alien spaceship..." she mused.

"Well what did you think it was, out here in outer space?" said Rose.

"Hey, now, I'm NOT dumb," said the girl. "I know those... things aren't human. But other than that, I know nothing. I was just grabbed, off the street, on my way home." She looked up wistfully, probably thinking of her home.

"How long have you been here?" said Rose. The girl looked to be from the same time and same century as herself.

The girl thought about it for a minute. "Maybe... two months?" She said. "It's hard to track time in here."

They were silent for a moment. Rose thought of the Doctor, out there unconscious. Where had they taken him? Was he alright? What was happening? She came very close to complete panic.

Rose tried to calm down and focus on finding out what was going on. "Do you know what these... creatures are doing here?"

The girl looked at her with a grim expression. "Their collecting people. And other... things. Creatures... I mean aliens." She corrected herself. "They don't bother me much, now... But when I got here they..." She breathed, once. Twice. When she was ready, she went on. "They took everything I had, including from my pockets. I had just gotten..." The girl looked down. "I had just bought some groceries and they took all of those too. I must've blacked out, or something. Then when I woke up, I was here. They drew my blood and some other stuff, then chained me up here. They don't do anything with me anymore, they just come occasionally. They look at me, then put down some food and a bucket to use the toilet in. Then they leave."

The girl looked close to crying. "I just want to go home..."

Rose would've gone over to the other girl and given her a hug, she sounded so depressed. But the chain that her own wrists were cuffed to wasn't long enough to walk that far.

By this point Rose had sat down. She figured that despite what the girl had said about the chains being cemented in, she would keep working on them. Maybe, just maybe, they'd eventually come out of the floor, or the cuffs would break. But the more she sat there, working on the chains, the more frustrated she got. She looked over to ask the girl, now crying, to ask one more question. "Have you ever seen them let anyone go? I mean, has anyone escaped?"

The girl whispered "Never." Then broke down and cried even harder.

"Well there's someone here with me who can help!" said Rose, trying to help the girl. The girl managed to say one more thing before she completely broke down.

"Where are they, then?"

Rose didn't say any more, because the girl was way past talking now, it seemed. She wondered where they had taken the Doctor... She knew he would come to get her, of that she was sure. But just WHAT was going on? She remembered what one of her captors had said... Calling the Doctor a "rare catch."

...What were they going to do with the Doctor?


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor usually tried to avoid sleeping, because sleeping meant dreaming. And since about ninety percent of his dreams took him back to the Time War and the terrible decision he'd had to make, he figured that that was the best decision. But nowadays, it seemed, the landscape and topic of his dreams had begun to change. No longer did he have to wake up in a cold sweat after seeing all of the Gallifreyan children's faces, screaming and crying, just before he ended the war, at the cost of all of their innocent lives. No, lately his dreams were filled with only one common factor among them: Rose. His Rose.

And the dream he was having now was no different. He was in the TARDIS's wardrobe, trying to find something nice to wear other than his normal suit and overcoat. He was taking Rose to 19th Century Italy, and he had booked seats in the BEST, most exclusive restaurant he could find. Last minute, of course, but when you had psychic paper, that didn't seem to matter too much. He laughed to himself.

He finally settled on a nice tuxedo, and it was a good thing too, because he had spent WAY too long trying to find something to wear that'd impress Rose. He'd worn this tux once before, and Rose had seemed to like it. But now, of course, he was hoping that the night would not end in a massive attack by the Cybermen. Now that he was finally ready, he picked up the flower that he got to give to Rose... A red rose, of course. When he stepped into the control room, flower behind his back, he saw Rose over near the console and his breathing caught in his throat, his hearts nearly skipping their beats...

She was in a long, red, silky gown with just the right amount of lace on her shoulders and around the neckline of the dress. Actually, the neckline was probably not to be called a neckline... It came nowhere near her neck, just rising above her chest and hugging her curves, the lace rising just a teensy bit above that.

She smiled at him, and since his brain didn't seem to be working fast enough to form words, he pulled the rose from behind his back and handed it to her, feeling his face get hot. Was he blushing? How was he blushing? He thought he'd have more control than that...

But then, as Rose gently grabbed his hair and pulled him into a kiss, all logical thought left his mind. He then felt a sharp pain in his right hand, and suddenly the scene started to fade.

"Noooo... " he said as he awakened, and then, as his eyes opened, the harsh reality of what was really going on occurred to him, feeling like a slap in the face. Rose- they had taken Rose!

He blinked and looked around. Where WAS he?

He could see that he was strapped down to a stretcher, the leather straps tight and padlocked together at the ends. He glanced down at his hands and lower arms, which were not strapped down (though his upper arms were), and saw the source of the pain in his right hand.

There was an IV in, but it was not connected to anything- all it was doing was drawing out his blood, pulling it into a vacuum sealed bag. He realized that someone had taken both his overcoat and his suit jacket off, leaving him in his slacks and white shirt. His tie was rumpled up. He slowly moved his left forearm underneath the stretcher and with relief felt his missing suit jacket and overcoat below him.

Rose... He thought. I have to get to Rose! He fumbled around and finally felt his sonic screwdriver inside one of the pockets in his overcoat. He got ahold of it, but then he realized he was not alone in the room...

He looked around and was stunned to see people coming and going... These aliens were obviously not "patients." There were some that looked human at first glance, as long as you didn't realize the fact that they had leathery gray wings, or claws, or enlarged ears... And some...

His eyes widened. Some of them were the cat- nurses that he and Rose had encountered at New Earth!

He wasn't sure about the species of the others, but just as he was thinking about it, one of the cat- nurses came over holding something in hand, but the Doctor couldn't see exactly what. He quickly closed his eyes, figuring that if he was going to escape, he would have to take them by surprise.

Then the cat-nurse, quicker than the Doctor thought was possible, plunged a needle into his neck, just underneath his collarbone.

The Doctor winced, not able to help it. Whatever it was that they had just injected him with burned like hell as it entered his veins. He clutched his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the padlock on the leather straps, the need to take them by surprise completely leaving his mind. As the lock sprung open, using his opposite arm, he shoved the cat-nurse three feet away. He rose from the stretcher, ripped the IV out of his hand, and ran. In his haste to get away, he stepped on the syringe that the cat nurse had used to inject him with, and it shattered, now empty.

As alarm bells rang, the nurses and yet-unidentified aliens ran after him, and though the Doctor was very fast, they were gaining on him.

He saw a bunch of huge compartments, like drawers, ahead of him in a long piece of medical furniture, and after he ran past, he threw the whole thing over on it's side, trying to block his pursuer's path. But just as he was about to run away, he hesitated, looking in horror at what was in the compartments...

People, aliens of every sort, had been lying in there, and they looked horrible. Each one had clearly been sick with something- he spotted a Dalek rotting, with green and orange mold starting to get inside its metal casing. There was a Silurian, with big gashes ripping open, somehow, from the inside out. And there were humans... The Doctor couldn't even bear to look at them, they were so horribly sick. He wanted to save them, save them all, but his pursuers were starting to get too close. With great regret, he ran on.

Right as he was almost sure he was lost, the Doctor realized that he was once again in the same room that he and Rose had been in when they were captured. Without stopping, he ran towards the room where he saw the two aliens drag Rose into.

After a bit more searching, he spotted Rose, standing and looking around for the source of the alarm bell, with her wrists chained to the floor.

"ROSE!" He yelled, and she finally looked his way. He whipped out his sonic screwdriver again, and undid her cuffs.

"COME ON!" he shouted, after grabbing her by the arm and starting to run away. But Rose seemed reluctant to go.

"DOCTOR!" She yelled, "We have to save her too!" She pointed at a girl a ways away with messy hair and green eyes. The Doctor started towards the girl with his sonic screwdriver at the ready, but just when he had gotten a foot away from unlocking he cuffs, the aliens he had seen in the previous room came in, nearly caught up with him, and three more came running out from the other direction. The Doctor grimaced, grabbed Rose's hand, and started running, practically dragging Rose. The girl started crying.

"Doctor,-" Rose started to say.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but we have to get out of here NOW! There's no more time!" said the Doctor.

They ran as fast as they could, until they finally spotted the TARDIS at the end of the corridor. Fortunately, the aliens had not messed with her at all, and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. They ran into the TARDIS. Rose slammed the doors behind her and the Doctor whipped around the console, pushing buttons and turning levers as fast as he could, until the TARDIS dematerialized, just barely a second before the cat- nurses and other unidentified aliens got there.

Rose leaned against the TARDIS doors, her breathing only starting to slow down. "Doctor," She asked. "Are you alright?"

The Doctor finally turned away from the console. "Yeah," he said, as he rubbed the spot on his lower neck, underneath his collarbone, where they'd injected him with... whatever it was. He shook his head, trying to clear the buzzing sensation that now filled it, and walked quickly up towards Rose. He took her hands in his and looked her over for any sign of injury, or needle marks. He couldn't find any.

"Are you alright?" He said, looking her straight in the eye with a look that was as intense as it was serious. Rose shook her head yes.

The Doctor heaved a huge sigh of relief. Then he turned to the side, sat down on the floor, and cradled his head in his hands.


	4. Chapter 4

Rose had so many questions in her mind, she didn't know what say first. But fortunately for her, she had a few seconds before she was planning on saying anything anyway. She wanted to get her breathing back to normal, and not quite all of it was from running at breakneck speed through a long corridor to get to the TARDIS. The Doctor had come up to her, so close, to ask if she was okay. She thought of his breath on her face, and his slightly unbuttoned white shirt, and the way his voice had been so low and serious, like her being okay was the only thing in the universe that mattered... Yes, THIS was why she had only shook her head yes instead of saying it out loud. With the Doctor as close as he was, she didn't trust her own voice...

She looked down at the Doctor with concern. He wasn't talking about the ship or what had happened; in fact, he wasn't saying anything at all. She knelt down beside him, and put her hand on his shoulder. "Doctor, are you okay? You look really... Tired?" She guessed at a word.

The Doctor immediately lowered his hands from where they had been cradling his head and stood upright. Rose stood up with him.

"Yeah, I told you, I'm fine. What did they do to you Rose?" He asked, his eyebrows knit together in concern. "They chained you to the floor?" He said, with an edge in his voice, like he was angry. "What else did they do?"

"They actually didn't do anything, after chaining me to the floor. They just left me there."

"For how long?" The Doctor asked, still with a slight edge in his voice.

Rose thought about it. "Not for too long... I'd say no more then twenty or thirty minutes, I'd guess, until you came for me."

She smiled, trying to get the Doctor to stop worrying about her. He raised an eyebrow, and gently took her hand and examined her wrist. There were slight bruises from all the pulling at the chains that Rose did to try to get free. The Doctor frowned deeply, running his fingers over the bruises ever so gently. Rose shivered internally. She shook her head to try to come back to reality, then finally asked the Doctor what was most concerning her.

"Doctor, what happened to you? I saw them inject you with something, then you passed out. Where did they take you? I heard those aliens- the ones with the wings- talking about you, as they left the room..."

"What did they say?" He asked, finally letting go of her wrist. He started rubbing the area just below his collarbone. He winced, then dropped his hands back to his sides.

Rose noticed the wince, and she also noticed that the Doctor avoided the first part of her question... The "What happened to you?" part.

"They said I smelled human, and that you smelled like a rare catch. Doctor, what-"

The Doctor cut her off. "Did they say anymore?"

"Well, no they didn't say anymore" Rose replied, a little miffed that he wouldn't tell her what happened. "Although, the girl on the ship, chained near me, said she thought they were collecting people, aliens..."

"Ah." said the Doctor, walking over to the console. He looked slightly lost in thought, and really worried... Almost as if he suspected exactly what was going on with that ship.

"Doctor, what happened to you?" She asked, emphasizing her words. She wasn't going to let him avoid the question this time.

The Doctor paused, looking across the console towards the TARDIS windows. Slowly, he responded. "... I'm not sure. They must've sedated me or something. When I woke up I was in a completely new room of the ship, on a stretcher. Those cat-nurses were there. They drew my blood and..." He stopped, looked at the ground for a second, glanced away, then looked Rose in the eyes and continued. "Rose, I saw so many species in that room... Lying in drawers." He visibly shuddered. "They all looked... really, really sick, like they were dying. But I have no idea what... disease they were dying from. They all looked different, and none of them looked to be suffering from a disease that I have EVER seen before..."

Rose was getting more concerned by the minute. She had never seen the Doctor look like this, with this look in his eyes... was it fear? He had a very dark, worried expression on his face. She studied his eyes, which seemed to say a lot more than the Doctor himself had actually said.

Rose started to walk toward him, to try to comfort him but he diverted his eyes back towards the TARDIS console.

The Doctor looked at the screen attached to the console. He shook his head slightly, then looked over at Rose once more. "I'll have to look into it.," he breathed in deep, and then changed the subject. "But we're back home, for you." He smiled. To Rose, it looked kind of forced. He continued. "Present day. Why don't we go get a bite to eat? I think we could both use it, after..." he swallowed, "that. We could go see your mum, then maybe do a little shopping in the market...?"

Rose looked at him oddly. "We're not going back? But we have to go figure out what's going on! We have to save..." Rose suddenly realized, the girl who she'd talked to on the ship. She never even learned her name.

The Doctor walked over to her and ushered her towards the TARDIS doors. "I told you, I'll look into it. But now, food. Are you hungry?"

Rose knew the Doctor was avoiding the issue. But her stomach grumbled loudly, and she relented. "Yeah. I guess. You said we could see my mum, right?"

The Doctor's face paled every so slightly. "We're not gonna eat with your mum, are we? Please tell me she doesn't have any of her homemade spaghetti left..."

Rose laughed- the expression on his face was priceless. "No, we're not gonna eat there. C'mon." Rose put her hand in the Doctor's and they headed out the TARDIS doors. She decided to wait until after they'd both had some food to re-approach the subject of that ship in the beginning of time. Hopefully then, the Doctor would talk to her more.

While they were walking, the Doctor stopped for a moment and stiffened suddenly, arcing his neck back, his face scrunched together in pain. But before Rose could say anything, the Doctor took a quick, deep breath, relaxed and gripped her hand tighter. He then started walking again, faster, and rambling on about pizza, and it's history, and how great it was, as if nothing had happened.

Okay, so we're having pizza, Rose thought, deciding not to comment on what had just happened. The Doctor looked fine now, she told herself. She thought of the pizza place at the corner near the market, and spent the next 5 minutes trying to decipher what the Doctor was saying his favorite type of pizza was.


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor and Rose were FINALLY seated at the pizza place at the corner of the market near her home. The Doctor had assumed it would be a carry-out place, but actually, as he was surprised and pleased to discover, it did have some seating area in it. Rose looked up at him quickly, then back down at her half-eaten slice of pizza, apparently miffed that he had taken so long deciding what kind of pizza he would like. He had to admit, it had taken some time... and the clerk at the register had given him the strangest look when he asked if they had any banana pizza. He'd had banana pizza before, about 251 years into the future of earth, and had LOVED it, so naturally he was disappointed when the lady said very slowly, as if he were extremely slow, that they did NOT have banana pizza. He did find that they had a supreme pizza with banana _peppers_ on it, so he finally settled for that.

As he was chewing a bite of the pizza, he was thinking...

 _This is NOTHING AT ALL like banana pizza. I had really wanted a banana pizza. I guess they haven't been invented yet... Maybe I should invent it early? The earth SERIOUSLY NEEDS banana pizza. It would be so much better-_

His train of thought was suddenly stopped short. He felt it again, just like before, on the way to the pizza place; a searing, burning pain, shooting from just under his collarbone to the back of his neck. But this time, instead of the pain staying only in that relative area, it branched further out. It felt like a good portion of his spine was getting ripped out of his body.

The first time the pain had struck, it was manageable, leaving almost as suddenly as it had come. But this time it was worse... WAY worse. His breath hitched back inside his throat, and he accidentally sucked the bite of pizza he had been chewing back, down his windpipe.

Rose looked up in alarm. "Doctor?!"

As he coughed and sputtered, she held his hand and slowly, very slowly, the pain left him. He was slowly getting his breathing back to normal, too. Rose peered at him.

"Are you okay? Let me go get you some water, okay? I'll be RIGHT back..."

The Doctor shook his head yes, and Rose hurried off to ask for a cup for some water.

The Doctor sat there, his mind moving a million miles an hour. _What was going on?_ He thought about it... Two times within the space of a half hour, blinding pain had struck him, and both times, it had radiated from the spot underneath his collarbone... Right where the cat nurse had injected him with _something_. He remembered the way it had burned entering his veins. What had they done to him?! He thought about it all; the way Rose had asked if they were in a hospital, the way they had drawn his blood. And Rose said they had referred to him as a "rare catch"...

As Rose arrived back with a cup of water, it finally occurred to him- all the other species of aliens in the drawers. Looking horribly sick. What if... What if they were collecting every sort of species of alien they could find? That would explain why they'd had called him a "rare catch," what with him being the last of the Timelords. They must've come from the future, time traveling like Rose and him were. How, he did not know, but that would be the only way that they could kidnap different species; they most certainly could not get them from the beginning of time, before they even came to be. But the people and aliens in the drawers... Surely they couldn't have only kidnapped sick people? And they didn't look to have any type of disease the Doctor had ever come across.

"Are you gonna take a drink of water, Doctor?" Rose said, looking at him with concern.

The Doctor mumbled. "Oh, yeah..." As he slowly sipped some water, all the puzzle pieces slid into place suddenly with a _snap_.

The Doctor nearly choked on his mouthful of water. _They were collecting different species of aliens and purposefully infecting them with diseases. New diseases, or hybrids of multiple ones..._

 _They were breeding new diseases. They were kidnapping every type of species they were able to, to use as Guinea pigs for their experiments._

"Doctor, WHAT'S WRONG?!" Rose whisper-yelled at him. "TALK TO ME!"

"I'm-" started the Doctor. His hand suddenly went to his lower neck, where they had injected him. Terror struck him.

They had infected _him_.

Rose stood up suddenly, grabbed the Doctor's hand, pulled him up and quickly walked out of the pizza place, leaving their half-eaten lunch behind. She was practically dragging him.

"Rose?" said the Doctor, hurrying to catch up to her pace. "What on earth-"

"COME ON!" She roared, quickening her pace until they were pretty much running.

They finally reached the TARDIS. Rose unlocked and threw open the door and shoved the Doctor in, so hard he lost his balance and fell over. He watched her slam the TARDIS doors shut, and then she rounded on him.

He cowered on the floor of the TARDIS. _So much for the Oncoming Storm_ , he thought. He slowly started to get up, eyeing her warily. She was downright scary with this look on her face.

Once he was on his feet, she pushed him into the chair close to the console, and backed up slightly with her arms crossed.

The Doctor stared. "Rose... What's wrong?"

Rose slowly took a deep breath, and her face went from looking downright scary to just really concerned and determined. He thought he could see tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Doctor, I want you to tell me what is going on, and I want the TRUTH. No more avoiding the subject. What is WRONG?! And DON'T YOU DARE lie to me.

The Doctor sighed heavily. "Okay," he breathed out. "I'll tell you."


	6. Chapter 6

Rose was sorry she had come down so hard on the Doctor like that. But as she looked at the Doctor, who seemed to be very reluctant to start talking, she knew that she HAD to find out what was going on, and what was up with him, cuz she _knew_ it was trouble- she could sense it. Almost like a hungry shark _senses_ a school of fish swimming nearby. And if she had to make him tell her by acting like a _right_ little B-... well, let's just say that if she had to get the answers the hard way, than that's how she would.

He was acting VERY odd. The whole time they were eating, he had not said _one word_ about their encounter with the alien ship. Normally, he would bounce ideas off her, and talk VeryVeryVERYVery fast about what might be going on, what his suspicions were, all of that. He would also try to talk while eating, and she'd have to ask him to repeat what he'd just said, on MORE than one occasion.

But then, at the pizza place, he'd just sat there. She had been waiting for him to say something, ANYTHING, about the ship, or what he thought... Hell, she would've been happy if he had started whining more about the fact that they didn't have any banana pizza. But no, he just _sat_ there and chewed his food, looking up in the air at nothing in particular, as if his mind was a million miles- or years- away.

And then he had done it again. He had contorted his face into the same tortured, pained look that he'd worn the first time it happened. And she didn't know why, but this time, it looked to her like he was hurting much worse than before.

At the sound of the Doctor beginning to speak, she snapped back to the present.

"Well... The Doctor started, apparently choosing his words very carefully, "I just kinda-sorta figured some things out."

Rose raised an eyebrow, and tapped her foot on the ground once, twice.

"I think the ship we landed on at the beginning of time- it just traveled back in time for a break- _how_ , I'm not sure yet, but I think the people on it were trying to collect a-" the Doctor swallowed, " _specimen_ of every single species in the universe, and then using them like... lab rats to study different diseases. I mean," the Doctor looked away from her for a second, then back and continued, "they might be _breeding_ new diseases, or hybrids of others... But in any case, they are purposely infecting these creatures- people- to study their new diseases.

Rose widened her eyes. "So THAT'S what you were thinking of at lunch! Cuz seriously, you were _zoned OUT."_

She stopped to consider what the Doctor had said. It made sense, she thought, especially considering that the green-eyed human girl on the ship had told her the same thing, essentially- that they were collecting people. But _intentionally_ infecting these people to develop their new diseases?

"How could anyone DO that?" Rose exclaimed. She felt another twinge of guilt at not having rescued the green-eyed girl, of for that matter even _learning her name_.

Rose tried to look on the bright side. "Well I'm glad you and I got out of there as quickly as we did. I mean, what if they'd infected one of US?! " She thought of green-eyes on the ship. "But at least now we've figured it out. We need to go back and stop them! And save that one girl that was chained to the floor near me! And who knows how many other people they've got trapped there..." Rose shivered at the thought- of being purposely infected, held against your will, used as lab rats...

The Doctor had gotten up and turned away from her, just walking around running his fingers through his hair. Did he even KNOW how crazy that made her? HOW she wanted to run her fingers along that same path through his hair...

She shook herself out of her reverie. "We can go visit mum later. We need to get back to that ship! If they were gonna-"

The Doctor then suddenly turned around and walked up to her. "We can't go back to that ship now. At least not right now. I told you, I'll _look into it_. Right now we need to get you off to see your mum."

Rose waited for the usual added comment, probably saying _'because if we don't stop by and see her, she'll slap me right good.'_ The Doctor usually always said something smart like that when they were gonna go see her mum. But this time the Doctor didn't say anything more.

Rose opened her mouth to argue that they needed to head straight back to that ship, but then, after looking at the Doctor's face for the first time in the last few minutes, the words died on her lips.

The Doctor looked at her with a pleading look. Like he was _pleading_ with her to not argue with him, about going to see her mother.

"Doctor, are you okay?" she said.

The Doctor walked over and sat down heavily on the chair attached to the console. He rubbed his eyes and looked at her miserably.

"Doctor?" She asked.

He sighed. "I know we need to go back to that ship, Rose, I know. But I don't want you to risk yours-" he looked down. "I'm going to call Captain Jack, maybe he knows something about this already, working with Torchwood, but right now you- we need to visit your mum and take a step back."

Rose stared at the Doctor. He had never wanted to 'step back' from anything important like this before. "Doctor, is there something I'm missing, something your not telling me?"

The Doctor was rubbing that spot under his collarbone again. He was silent.

"Doctor?" She asked again.

He finally met her eyes. "We _can't_ go back now...I don't want you getting hurt. God forbid you get infected t-"

He shut his mouth quickly, but Rose already knew what he almost said.

"Oh my God... You were...?"

The Doctor stood up and started towards her, very slowly. "Yeah." He sighed. "I think so. I was ... Infec _ted_..."

The last half of that last word suddenly broke, turning into an anguished, painful cry. He suddenly grabbed his head, and fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

"DOCTOR!? Rose screamed.


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor couldn't move. He couldn't _think_. All that he could do was try his best not to scream too loudly, but he was even failing at that. His head felt like sharp shards of electrified metal were being drilled up into his skull. He realized he had fallen to the floor, and he was thrashing about, but he couldn't seem to control his arms and legs. He couldn't control _anything_.

Rose had gone down to the floor with him, and she was trying, desperately it seemed, to keep his head from slamming against the floor too hard while he was in mid-convulsion.

"DOCTOR! Doctor, can you hear me? DOCTOR!" she yelled.

He only managed to reply with a "HNNNNNG-GAH!" His breathing had gone ragged.

Along with the pain and thrashing, an intense heat was radiating through his body, and it _hurt_. It was stemming from the spot underneath his collarbone where they had injected him, _burning_ down through his chest, his arms, his legs, and up into his head. He felt like he was filled with the heat from a star going supernova...

After one last violent flash of pain, FINALLY, his body began to still, the pain melting away suddenly like an ice cube held under hot water. Dazed, he tried to get back his senses. After attempting to wiggle his fingers and his toes, he found that he was back to being in control of his own body, now that the convulsions seemed to be over. He still felt the crazy heat inside himself, though, and his breathing was still somewhat labored.

The question as to WHY the pain came and left so quickly vaguely occurred to him, but he didn't feel like thinking about it. Instead, he opened his eyes, which had been shut tight because of the pain, and looked out and around.

He was lying on the floor in the control room, his head resting inches away from the bottom of the console. Rose was on her knees, one hand on his head, which was probably there to protect it from hitting the console or floor too hard during the seizure, and her other hand was on his chest.

Her eyes were rimmed with tears, and the Doctor's hearts clenched up when he realized that this whole time, she had been with him, trying to help him and stop him from accidentally hurting himself. Her pained expression was filled with extreme concern and futility; that she hadn't been able to help him, no matter how hard she tried. She looked like she felt utterly useless, and it pained the Doctor to see her in such distress.

"R- " he tried to clear his throat, "Rose..."

"Doctor..." Her voice broke, "Doctor, oh my God... can you hear me? _Please_ , Doctor, _can you hear me_?" She was half yelling.

The Doctor reached for her hand. "Yes, YES. I hear you. I'm here, I'm back. _YES_." He squeezed her hand once, then again, trying to reassure her with his steady grip, and stop her from absorbing the panic he saw looming in her eyes. He attempted giving her a smile, though it turned out to be a weak one.

 _This is bad_ , he thought. He could've slapped himself for not telling her BEFORE that he had been infected; that something was wrong...

Turned out, he didn't have to. The intense look in Rose's eyes managed to simultaneously express relief...

AND slap him.


	8. Chapter 8

Rose didn't know what to say. While she was angry- VERY angry- at the Doctor for not telling her the full story, that he had been infected, she was also going out of her mind with worry. The way he had been just a minute ago, his body thrashing about in that terrible seizure, eyes rolled up into the back of his head, before he shut his eyes so tight... She knew he had been in terrible pain, and even though the seizure had passed, even though now he was looking at her and muttering that he was here, that he was okay- her fear wouldn't go away, it just _wouldn't_. And he still looked really bad- his face was beaded with sweat, and he was breathing like he had run a marathon.

The Doctor started to sit up, making an involuntary huffing noise that told her that he was still _not okay_. He looked her straight in the eye.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you... I should've. I just... " He put his hand up to his face, covering his eyes for a moment.

At that moment, all the anger Rose had been feeling about not being told melted away. She grabbed his free hand, and wrapped it in her own hands. After a long few seconds, the Doctor finally pulled his other hand away from his eyes and looked at her with trepidation.

 _Was that a ghost of tears_? He looked up at her miserably, looking like a puppy who had done something wrong and was waiting for a harsh admonishment.

"I'm not angry at you, Doctor," She said. "I'm just concerned. D'ya think you can stand up?"

The relief on the Doctor's face was immense. "Yeah, I think so."

Rose helped the Doctor to his feet, but he seemed to be okay, so Rose withdrew her support, and was relieved to find that he could stand and walk around by himself just fine. The Doctor started tugging at the tie around his neck.

"Are you... Feeling alright, now?" Rose asked, looking at him closely. His forehead was still covered in tiny beads of sweat.

"Are you feeling hot in here, or is it just me?" said the Doctor. Rose slowly shook her head no.

"Okay then, just me," he said. He fiddled with his tie some more. " _God_ I'm..." He breathed in, out. "I think I'm a little overheated... D'ya mind if I take off my tie?" He didn't wait for her answer, just ripped at his tie until it was off, then threw it on the floor.

Even now, after his tie was off, the Doctor was still looking like he felt like he was in an oven. He was, now, actually tugging at the neck of his white shirt. She reached up and felt his forehead, and it practically scalded her hand.

"Ya must be boiling, Doctor!" She said. An idea popped into her mind, and before she could shove it away, she made a split-second decision to act upon it. She reached up and started undoing the buttons on the front of his shirt.

"Let's get you out of that shirt, you need to get cooled down... " she said, her cheeks starting to turn redder than the pepperoni she had eaten so shortly ago. _Maybe I should have shoved that idea away anyways_ , she thought, more than slightly embarrassed.

But the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Actually, he was helping her undo the buttons. Rose chanced a glance up at the Doctor's face. He looked eager to get his shirt off, probably because of how hot he felt, Rose knew. But when he caught her eyes as she glanced up, his cheeks turned scarlet. "Umm..." He started.

Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the doors to the TARDIS. _Oh my God_ , thought Rose as she heard the voice she knew so well... It was her mother.

"C'mon Rose, open up this damn door, you haven't visited in weeks! If I hadn't seen the TARDIS here on my way home, who knows WHEN you would've come back?"

"I haven't been gone weeks, mum, just-"

"Oh this STUPID time travel, messes with ya' head! Now, _open the bloody door so I can give you a proper hello..._ "

Rose finally opened the door, reluctantly, while the Doctor turned away to face the opposite direction. Her mum rushed in and gave Rose a big hug, the went on over to the Doctor, turning him around for a hug and...

Rose saw her mum's mouth fall open, staring at the Doctor's half-naked chest. Her mum quickly looked over at her, then back at the Doctor, then back at Rose again.

As her mum drew herself up to her full height, and rounded on the Doctor, Rose somehow knew what was coming.

 _Oh, God_...


	9. Chapter 9

The Doctor barely got out an "Oh hi" before the angry tornado that was Jackie Tyler slapped him upside the face.

"OW, what was that for?!" He said indignantly, holding his cheek.

Jackie looked at him with a blaze of contempt that the Doctor thought probably would've been audible _as well as_ visible, if it weren't for the sheer volume of her voice chewing him out and drowning out every other noise in the control room, including Rose's protests.

"You _sneaky little ba-_ "

"MUM! What are 'ya-" Rose tried to interrupt.

"What d'ya _THINK YOU'RE DOIN_ ,' here takin' off your clothes all alone with Rose, 'ya takin' advantage of _MY DAUGHTER_?! 'Ya say your travelin,' and-"

" _MUM_!" Rose shouted, getting between her mother and the Doctor. He took this opportunity to back up to four or five feet across the control room from where he'd been standing.

" _Stop_!" Rose shouted, louder. Finally Jackie shut her mouth and looked at Rose, who was blocking her from moving any closer to the Doctor.

"Mum, he wasn't doin' _anything_! He's-" she looked at the Doctor briefly, took a breath, then continued. "He's _sick_ , he was just tryin' to cool down. I think he must have a fever or something..."

Thankfully, her mum seemed to be listening. She seemed to simmer down a bit.

"Fever, eh?" Said Jackie, her rage leaving and being replaced only by a mild suspicion.

The Doctor scrambled to say something. "Yeah, see, Jackie, I'm, I'm burning up... Don't feel good, don't feel good at all..."

 _It was the truth_ , he thought, still standing a ways away from her.

Jackie sighed, and it seemed she believed him and Rose. "Well," she started "I WAS kinda wondering why it felt like I slapped a teapot that was boiling over instead of a person... Well, alien..."

Rose shook her head yes, and Jackie shot an apologetic glance at the Doctor. "Sorry, mate, just tryin' to look after my daughter here..."

"Mmmhm," grumbled the Doctor, still rubbing his cheek.

"Mum, there's... there's some stuff the Doctor and I have to figure out..." Said Rose, "About who got the Doctor sick," she added quickly.

Jackie looked at Rose, then at him, shrugged and said "Well, maybe he came in contact with someone sick, 'ya know, there is a pretty bad cold goin' around lately, they were just saying on the telly last night-"

"Mum," Rose interrupted. "It's kinda an alien thing..."

"Oh," said Jackie. "Well, then, I'll leave you to deal with that. But DON'T get too close to Rose," she said, wagging her finger at the Doctor. "I don't want her catching any intergalactic flu or anything..."

The Doctor smiled a grim smile. "I don't think this is an... illness that travels through the air. I think it's only through blood contact that this travels, if I'm right..."

He hoped so, oh God how he hoped so. He couldn't stand the idea of Rose getting sick because of him...

"Okay," said Jackie. She turned to hug Rose again. "Well, please visit as soon as 'ya can, alright? I miss 'ya..."

"We will," Rose promised. "As soon as we can." At that Jackie smiled and walked out of the TARDIS.

"I'm so sorry, Doctor..." Rose started, walking over to the Doctor.

"It's okay," he said. "She's just being... Protective." He attempted a smile while tugging at his half-unbuttoned shirt. His face still stung. The Doctor didn't know which slap hurt worse, this one, or the one he'd gotten in his previous incarnation.

"Are you still feeling overheated?" Said Rose, as she gently reached up to feel his forehead. "'Ya still feel pretty hot to me..."

"Yeah," he said, tugging some more at his shirt. He still felt like he was in a slow-roaster.

Rose was suddenly staring at the part of his skin that he had bared at that moment by tugging at his shirt collar... the side of his neck, where the cat-nurse had injected him, just below his collarbone.

"Doctor..." She started in a smallish voice, still staring at the same spot. "Take off your shirt for me, could 'ya?"

"What?" He said. "Why-"

"Just take your shirt off the rest of the way, please?" She cut in.

"Okaaaay..." Said the Doctor. He unbuttoned his shirt the rest of the way and slung it over the console. All of a sudden he was feeling very self-conscious.

"Oh God," said Rose.

"What?!" He said, slightly alarmed at her reaction. "Rose, what's wrong..."

"Go look in a mirror," she said. "Do 'ya have a mirror?"

The Doctor frowned. He took the screen on the console, pulled it down slightly, then hunted for his sonic screwdriver. Once he found it, he sonic-ed the screen to put it into a mirror function.

He yelped slightly.

From the spot where he had been injected, going both up his neck and down his side, were thin, angry-red lines, branching out across his skin. One branch disappeared up into his hair, and another went down his whole side, tendrils going around and across his skin kind of like the beginnings of a spiderweb, eventually disappearing underneath his trousers.

The Doctor cursed in Gallifreyan.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose stood in the TARDIS control room staring at the shirtless Doctor, who was running his hands very carefully over the bright red lines crossing his torso. They looked like they'd been etched into his skin, kind of like someone had drew them- not onto, but _into_ his skin- with the sharp tip of an old-fashioned calligraphy pen.

Though the marks on his skin weren't the only reason that she stood staring. She quite liked the way he looked without his shirt on...

At the sound of the Doctor's voice, she jerked herself back from her thoughts. She frowned though; she must not have heard him right, because what he said did not register with her as any word she knew...

"What?" She asked.

The Doctor turned to her and mumbled, "Nothing. Rose-"

"What did you say?" She persisted. "You sounded like you were speaking... some other language... But why-"

The Doctor interrupted her. "Rose, that was Gallifreyan, okay? The TARDIS doesn't translate that. But-"

Rose then cut in. "What is so secret that you can't say it in English to me?" She teased, trying to smile a little bit. She hoped to lighten the Doctor's mood, if she could.

The Doctor sighed and held up his hands. "It's not a secret. I just thought I'd save you the earache of severe profanity." He smiled a little. " _Would_ you prefer the English translation?"

Rose laughed, only slightly. "No, I understand."

The Doctor then turned back to the console and pressed a button or two, and the screen which they had been using as a mirror turned dark. He fished his shirt off the console and started putting it back on, deliberately avoiding meeting Rose's eyes.

Rose knew that the Doctor was worried. She was, too; extremely so. Once the Doctor had gotten his shirt back on, she spoke.

"So... Doctor?"

"Yeah?" He replied, glancing up. He was leaning against the console, looking towards her.

"What kind of illness is this?" She asked tentatively, motioning her hand towards the angry red lines going around and across his torso. "Do 'ya know?"

As soon as she saw his face she knew the answer before he even spoke it.

"No," he said, with another sigh. "This disease has a bunch of effects, but they're all completely random..." He ran his hand down his face, to just underneath his chin. "Once I think I might be able to match the symptoms to a disease I've heard of, another symptom _pops up_." He spat out the last two words angrily. "I can't even find a place to start, I..."

He stopped and appeared to think on it, while rubbing the injection spot with his left hand.

"Well..." Rose said. She tried to think. Something, _anything_.

"Oh!" She knew one thing... "You had said something about calling Captain Jack!"

The Doctor widened his eyes for a few seconds, hopeful, but then the hope slid right off his face. "Yeah, I was gonna call him, but I don't know the number. Remember, he's working with Torchwood now. Plus, I don't know how much longer I'll have before the next... Before my next _episode_ strikes me." He sounded grim.

"We'll find him, Doctor," said Rose. That seemed like the only option they had, short of going back to that ship. But she knew how the Doctor felt about that... Every time she had mentioned it before, he had avoided the very thought of it. He'd even seemed... was it... _scared_?

The Doctor spoke, bringing her back from her thoughts. "But if we're out there wandering about _looking for him_... That could really take a while."

Rose blinked. Was it just her, or did the Doctor's face seem to pale slightly?

Suddenly she remembered it- how could she have been so thick?!

"Doctor! I've got Captain Jack's phone number! His _personal number_!"

The Doctor looked up, getting paler by the minute, it seemed. A thin smile spread across his face. "Wow. How many people does he solicit a day, I wonder?" The Doctor seemed to choke a bit on the last few words he spoke.

"Doctor?" Rose said.

"Rose..." He started, his eyes slightly going out of focus. "I think I need to go lie down, I-"

Rose knew immediately what he meant. "Oh God," she said, as she grabbed his hand and started running towards the TARDIS's sick bay. At first, the Doctor was moving his legs, running _with_ her. But with each step he started to lag behind, so Rose pulled his hand and ran even faster, as fast as she could.

By the time they got near the sick bay (or at least what Rose _hoped_ was the sick bay), Rose was practically _dragging_ the Doctor. They finally arrived, and she knew he wasn't going to be able to get up onto the higher stretcher by himself, so, looking around quickly, she found one that was much lower down to the ground, and up against a corner of the wall. She shoved him onto it, as gently as she could.

Before the Doctor's back even hit the mat, his eyes scrunched closed and he started screaming, a horrible scream that sounded like he was being burned alive. The convulsions then began, again. Trying to hold the Doctor down as best and gently as she could, Rose pulled out her phone, and scrambled until she finally found Captain Jack's personal number. She dialed it immediately.

A yawn came across from the other end. "Captain Jack here-"

"This is Rose," she yelled into the phone, trying to be heard over the Doctor's screams, which were getting louder and louder by the second. "You need to come here to the TARDIS _RIGHT NOW_ , it's the Doctor!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, just a quick note to everyone reading my story- First off, THANK YOU. You have and continue to inspire me to write more, and I cannot thank you enough. All the story follows, favs, and reviews, they mean the world to me, they really do. Also, I'm sorry that it has been so long since posting the last chapter; I have trouble every now and then getting my creativity to stay put long enough for me to put it out in a chapter. *sighs* Sometimes it's not easy to pin down creativity ;)**

 **But thank you again, to everyone reading this. Because of you, I can wrestle with my lack-of-creativity and self-doubt demons instead of letting them carry me away. Oh, and I have another story in the works. Maybe I'll give out details, at some point. Who knows? ;) Anyways, here's Chapter 11!**

It was happening again. The Doctor was convulsing, pain shredding though his body, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. But waiting for it to pass... every minute felt like an hour. This time, though his eyes were shut tight from the pain and he could not see her, the Doctor heard the faint sound of Rose's voice amongst his screams. He had no idea what she was saying, but it comforted him to hear her voice anyways.

As the pain crescendoed, the heat that was once again burning him alive started to concentrate itself in his arms and legs. He was trying to handle it, fighting to stay conscious, but he could feel himself slipping. And then, when he couldn't fight it any longer, as he slipped into unconsciousness, he held onto one thing- the sound of Rose's voice.

* * *

Rose had had to repeat herself several times while talking to Captain Jack, due to the sheer volume of the Doctor's voice. But he had seemed to grasp the severity of the situation anyways, hearing the screams building in the background. Jack kept the conversation short, asking where the TARDIS was, and to Rose's great relief, he was actually very nearby, at a bar no more than several blocks away.

Rose hung up, and, after returning her mobile to her pocket, focused her complete attention on the Doctor.

She still was having to hold him down, because the convulsions in this seizure seemed to be a bit more violent than the last, and even after two and a half minutes, he was still thrashing about.

Tears pricked her eyes as she tried to help him. She started talking to the Doctor, saying "It's okay, I'm here. Hold on, it's gonna be alright. Please, hold on..." and she repeated that, saying it over and over again. Sweat was pouring off him, and she couldn't imagine how he must've felt.

Then, slowly, the seizure ended, the convulsions abating and being replaced by shivers. Rose waited for the Doctor to open his eyes and talk to her, but to her concern and disappointment, with somewhat of a sigh, his head slumped to the side. Rose immediately went to put her hands on his chest trying to feel for a pulse. To her great relief, she felt a steady double heartbeat.

At that moment, she heard a brisk knock at the doors to the TARDIS.

After making sure the Doctor wasn't going to fall off the stretcher, she ran back to the control room, pulling the doors open.

At the moment the doors opened, Captain Jack swiftly walked in.

"Where is he?"

"In here," Rose replied, quickly leading him back to the sick bay. While walking there, she gave him a brief outline of what had happened- the ship at the beginning of time, the Doctor being infected, the escape, and every episode of pain that the Doctor had had up until this point.

Upon entering the sick bay, Captain Jack's brow furrowed upon seeing the Doctor. He walked over to him.

"You say he's never lost consciousness after a seizure before?" Jack asked.

"Well yeah, he'd go out for the seizure, but then wake up," Rose said. "D'ya have any idea what's wrong with him, like what kind of disease this is? I mean, what with you working for Torchwood now..."

Captain Jack looked back up at Rose. "I'd like to say I knew, but I've gotta tell ya, if the Doctor _himself_ doesn't know what disease this is, then there's little hope in _me_ knowing." He gave her a wry, flirtatious smile. "But I'm glad to hear that I'm your first person to call." He gave her a wink.

Rose thought back to what the Doctor had said about Captain Jack, wondering about how many people a day he solicits. She smiled, then tried to focus on the present situation.

"So you said he was having pain, and seizures. Anything else?" Said Jack.

Rose thought and remembered one thing she had forgotten to tell him. "Oh, yeah, he said he was feeling really hot. He felt like he had a fever, too."

"Well, he is hot," Jack stated. Rose noticed that he said that BEFORE he felt the Doctor's forehead.

Suddenly she heard a groan. It was the Doctor!

She knelt down beside him, slightly pushing Captain Jack out of the way.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor opened his eyes and blinked a few times, then focused on her, breathing in a deep breath.

"Rose?" He asked. He made a slight movement of his right arm. "How long was I out?"

"Enough time for her to call me and for me to get here," chimed in Jack.

The Doctor then realized that Captain Jack was there. He drew his eyebrows for just a moment, then gave Jack a look with a slightly raised left eyebrow. "Jack," he acknowledged him, with a slight nod.

The Doctor made another slight movement in his arm. His brow furrowed. He half opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. "Um..." He started.

"Yeah?" Said Rose, one eyebrow raised.

"I don't know if it's just me, or if I'm legitimately losing it, but-"

Maddeningly, he paused. Rose always found it irritating when he did that, though she never said it. She tipped her head a little to the side.

He gave her a look, his expression both wide open and confused

"... I can barely lift my arm."

Rose exchanged a quick glance with Captain Jack.

Then the Doctor kicked the sheets a little, just a little.

"... And my legs," the Doctor said, and at that moment he got a look in his eyes like he wanted to cry, but after an audible swallow, the look mostly went away. But it wasn't completely gone.

Rose bit her lip, then half-hugged him while he lay there. She put her head on his chest.

Captain Jack had a grim expression.

" I'll, uh, go... stretch my legs," he said. "Be back in a minute." He cleared his throat, then exited the room.

"I'll fix it, Doctor. I swear it." Rose said, crying silently into the Doctor's shirt.. "I won't let you down."

The Doctor sniffed. He leaned his head forward- as much as he could while lying down. He kissed her forehead.

"Since when have you ever?" He said.


	12. Chapter 12

The Doctor held Rose, who had managed to give him a kind-of half hug, even _though_ he was lying down. Her head was on his chest, and she was crying. The Doctor hearts clenched, because he _knew_ HE was the reason she was so upset. And God, he couldn't stand to hear her cry. He struggled to lift his right arm and put it on her head. Once he finally succeeded, (with a great effort) he ran his hand along her hair.

Rose looked up, sniffed, and them lied her head back down again on his chest.

The Doctor had to think. _He had to THINK_. Because lying about how bad he felt and being afraid to go back to that ship was just taking up time, and the Doctor was afraid that time was one thing they didn't have a lot of. He knew that there was only so much more pain and seizures that he could take before it would be putting his life in danger... He could _feel_ it, the disease, pulling at everything in him, and he was afraid that he might have to regenerate... But he tried to push that to the back of his mind. He couldn't put Rose through that _again_.

Right now, he had to figure out a plan...

At that point, Captain Jack walked back into the room, and Rose lifted her head, gently taking the Doctor's hand off her head, to look at Jack.

"Well, I've been looking in the TARDIS 's files to see if I- OH CRAP, what now?" Jack said, getting significantly louder towards the end. His eyes were on the Doctor's arm, that Rose had just taken off her head. Her hand was in his, and she followed his gaze to the Doctor's arm. Her eyebrows furrowed, slightly raised.

The Doctor looked down at his arm, where they were looking, and found that the red lines that had criss-crossed his torso had spread, now running down his arm. He glanced at his other arm, and it was the same.

As Jack stared, the Doctor leaned towards Rose and whispered "I thought you told him everything...?"

Rose swallowed and looked up at the Doctor. "Maybe I didn't..."

Jack huffed.

"Okay, guys, THIS is what it comes down to," he said, looking irritated. "I can't help unless I know _everything_. Truth, from ALL of you. What happened, how you feel, what you suspect..." He added a grin "And what tomorrow's winning lottery numbers are."

Rose grinned. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Getting back on point," the Doctor said, "Jack." He fixed his eyes over to Captain Jack, who was still standing in the doorway. "You started to say something about looking through the TARDIS 's files. Did you find anything?"

Captain Jack sighed and sat down on the floor. "Well, I couldn't find anything about what this affliction could be, but just judging on what I've seen and heard, this disease has mutated. The TARDIS must've already ran a body scan on you earlier, 'cuz I found it in the records and I was able to compare it to a body scan from right now."

Rose raised her eyebrows "...But I didn't run a scan..." She looked at the Doctor.

He struggled to raise his hands, and, without success, he just shrugged. "Well I didn't either. Good ol' girl musta did that on her own." He fixed his eyes on the walls of the sick bay, with a concerned expression on his face. "She senses something wrong..." He said quietly, trailing off at the end nearly down to less than a whisper.

He caught Rose looking at him, concerned. He looked at Jack, and asked "Was there a difference? Between the two scans?"

Jack nodded. "The first scan showed you as mostly normal, but with a slightly elevated temperature and white blood cell count. But the second scan showed a bunch of things that were... different." He made a confused face. "Problems involved with his neurotransmitters, slight evidence of some excitotoxicity, and generally a host of neurological irregularities that suddenly seem present."

Rose drew her eyebrows together, looked at the Doctor and said "So basically... Not good. What are we gonna do?"

The Doctor half smiled. He was so happy to have them stop fussing over him, and get down to matters of greater importance.

Captain Jack turned and looked at Rose intently. "Rose, is there anything else you can remember about that ship at the beginning of time? Anything you might've missed?"

Rose shook her head. "I probably missed a lot, I didn't even know who the aliens were... Other than the cat-nurses. Hell, I didn't even learn that green-eyed girls name..."

Jack's eyebrows went up. "Another human? With green eyes?"

"...yes..." Replied Rose.

"I wonder... " started Jack. "Did she have really dark dark-brown hair? Bad acne? 'Bout your height?" He said, gesturing towards Rose.

Rose looked at him in amazement. "Yeah, exactly what you said... Do you know her?"

Captain Jack nodded, and got a slightly angry look on his face. "Yep. She was the one who stole my vortex manipulator."

The Doctor couldn't believe it. He started to sit up, then stand up, but his legs were still feeling so numb that he just flounced back down to the stretcher.

"THAT'S HOW... Oh my god... I think I know..." He started. His face was alight with comprehension.

And then his eye started twitching.

 _NOT AGAIN, NOT NOW_! He thought. As intense heat started to creep over and across his body, and that now-familiar tearing pain started from underneath his collarbone, he struggled to get his next few words out before the seizure would start.

"Krillitanes... Time traveling... GET BACK TO... THAT SHIP..." His eyes, bugging out with the pain, turned to Rose, and with a very pained, manic looking smile he said "... Slap me."

And then he passed out.


	13. Chapter 13

_What?!_ Thought Rose. _What is he going on about? Why would I..._

Her thoughts were cut short through the hoarse screaming of the Doctor. His voice was not as loud now... but it sounded as if he was gonna lose his voice.

" _Slap_ me?" Said Captain Jack with a surprised-looking, wry smile. "What kinda _kinky_ stuff are you guys doing lately anyways?"

Rose glared up at him while holding the Doctor down mid-seizure. "Can't you focus?" She said, exasperated. "What was he going on about? D'ya think he's figured something out?"

Jack looked as if he was trying to put things together. He paused.

"OH! Krillitanes! Those must be who the unknown aliens were!" He said quickly.

Rose thought about it, still holding down the Doctor, who was already starting to come out of his convulsions, bit by bit. That one that had growing wings back on the ship...

"... Well, now that I think about it, they did seem similar to what I've seen them look like before... but they looked a little different too..." Then she remembered. "Oh that's right! The last time the Doctor and I saw the Krillitanes- actually the first time for me- he said that they were a composite race... that they... _cherry picked_ the best physical features out of all the races they conquered..."

"You said they looked different." said Jack. "So is that why you didn't recognize them? Maybe they've changed their form slightly since then..."

Rose remembered how their ears were rather large... the last time she had seen them, their ears hadn't been nearly that size. "Yeah... " She trailed off.

The Doctor was out of the seizure now, just lying there, unconscious again. She thought about the few words he'd spoken before going into it. _Slap me, he said..._ she thought. _Maybe I should... follow orders. I don't want to hurt him, but..._

She looked at his face, lying there, covered in sweat and still passed out, and felt her heart ache with worry. With a slight pang of guilt, she made up her mind.

She slapped him as hard as she could across his face.

The Doctor's eyes sprang open and then shut right back again, due to the pain of being slapped, she guessed. He breathed in deep and suddenly, almost gasping.

But he was smiling.

"Oh, BRILLIANT, you are, Rose!" He cleared his throat a little.

His voice sounded very harsh and breathy... Rose imagined that was because of all the screaming he had been doing lately.

Jack was staring, dumbfounded. "You slapped him!"

"Yeah," said Rose. She couldn't help but smile now that the Doctor was awake. _And he'd called her brilliant..._

Jack transferred his stare over to the Doctor. "And you woke up!"

The Doctor smiled even brighter. "Yu-p" he said, popping the 'p' sound in the word. "Sudden impact of the slap provided just enough reactionary response in the pain receptors in my brain to trip the circuit and wake me up, and out of unconsciousness. Was what I figured would do the trick, at least once I got over the seizure..."

For a moment, the Doctor looked worried again. Rose saw it- the feelings of hopelessness and worry flitted across his face for a moment, just a moment. But then he comprised his face again into a smile.

"Look-" he said. "I think I know what's going on. The aliens on that ship are Krillitanes... dunno where they got those massive ears though." He made a face and continued. "But they ARE infecting different people, different alien species, just like I said. And they are traveling back in time to make sure there is NO disease they don't have a... sample of. That's why they draw the blood of everyone they steal away." The Doctor looked lost in thought, but then his expression turned angry, very angry, and he almost spat out the next sentence. "Because _every once in a while_ , they find someone who's sick. Then they obtain that virus or bacteria, or whatever it is, and eventually, they have enough diseases to create a cocktail.

He eyed Rose, with a dead serious look on his face. "They create a cocktail of every and all of the diseases known to the universe and they have a weapon. A bio-weapon that could end all other life in the universe."

Rose shuddered.

Captain Jack chimed in. "But... how do they know all how to do this? And how could they do it without contracting diseases themselves?"

The Doctor grew a cynical, bitter half-smile. "Well, that's what they teamed up with the cat nurses for. Who better than former nurses with a flawed sense of right and wrong to team up with? Then the Krillitanes know _just_ what they need to do to avoid contracting the disease."

Captain Jack looked a bit confused. "But wait- you said they were traveling in time... how? It's not like they have their own TARDIS..."

The Doctor sighed. "Your vortex manipulator. You said that the human girl that Rose saw on the ship stole it."

Jack looked like he wanted to slap himself.

The Doctor went on. "Once they abducted her, they must've took it and wired it into the mainframe of the ships' navigational computer. Would be easy to do. They probably never thought of or intended to go back in time, but now that they had a way to do it? What a golden opportunity for them to get a wider variety of diseases- even ones that have long since disappeared..." a sarcastic tone had been in the Doctor's voice, but had petered out by the time he reached the end of his sentence.

The Doctor was silent, thinking hard, apparently. Now that they knew what was going on, what would they do?

"But they.. they have to have a cure! They would have made one up, wouldn't they have?" Rose's voice wavered.

"Cure for what?" Said the Doctor. "Every known disease in the universe _combined_?"

The Doctor had a hopeless look on his face. Rose took a deep breath in, finding momentary courage. She took his hand in hers.

"No," she said quietly. "A cure for _who_... you."

She planted a quick kiss on his forehead. And even though she was terrified, she worked through it. Even though nothing was certain, and they had no plan, Rose knew what she was going to do. Come hell or high water.

 _She would save the Doctor._


	14. Chapter 14

The Doctor felt terrible… and not just because he was dying of some mega-deadly cocktail of diseases. He knew that if they didn't do anything, the future of the universe could be at stake. After all, the Krillitanes were a race that lived to conquer other races; or at least that was what they thought they should be doing with their time.

But when he looked up into Rose's eyes, he felt hope. Here she was, the Bad Wolf herself, who had taken on the entire time vortex herself just to save his life, saving him again- or at least trying to. And she had kissed him again, albeit on the forehead. He smiled- he loved his little yellow and pink girl. She was even better than banana pizza. And that was saying something.

Captain Jack cleared his throat. "Um, I hate to be the one to crash the party, but HOW exactly are we gonna do this? Doctor, you're in no condition to go up against anyone, much less the Krillitanes."

"Doctor," Rose started, and his gaze snapped to hers. "I'm gonna need you to bring the TARDIS back to the beginning of time, back to that ship. Can you do that for me?"

"Ah, sure," he began, with a slight cough. " we'll need to find a way for me to be more…" he tried to wiggle his half-unresponsive toes. "Mobile…"

Rose and Captain Jack exchanged glances.

"Doctor…" said Rose, "You've gotta stay here, you-

"WHAT?!" The Doctor cried. He coughed, then shook his head a little, both to say no and to clear the buzzing out of it, and to calm down. "No, I've gotta come, I cant have you going in by yourself, Rose,…"

"But-" Jack began.

"AND I MEAN OF COURSE," Started the Doctor, talking loudly over Jack and Rose's protests. He coughed again, then continued. "Jack will come along, but you are NOT going in there without me." he looked at Rose, then remembered Captain Jack. "You _two_ are not going in there without me."

Rose smiled a sad smile, "but Doctor, you can't even walk."

The Doctor let out a groan of frustration, then coughed. He didn't feel good at all, and they wouldn't stop disagreeing with him. There was absolutely _NO WAY_ that he was gonna let her go on that ship without him, even if Captain Jack WAS there. He was very aware that he couldn't walk, thank you very much. He for sure didn't need reminding about _that_. If only they could be quiet long enough for him to _think_ , to get that buzzing noise out of his head….

He coughed again. He'd love to get rid of that too, that cough. He began, " Rose, PLEASE, " he coughed again.." PLEASE, bear with me here, you," he swallowed, then coughed again. He blinked. " You can't… " another cough, " CAN'T go in there withou-" He coughed harder, then swallowed, tasting something like the copper of a penny. "Without me. We'll, " COUGH, "we'll have to fig-" COUGH. "Figure out a- " He coughed REALLY hard, again. "- a way…."

He couldn't continue, he was coughing too hard, the taste of copper in his mouth strong and turning half his coughs into gags.

Rose had her hands on him, pushing him out of a sitting position, and onto the stretcher-bed he was on. When did she get so close to him? She had just been sitting next to him, about a foot away... He coughed, gagging again. He noticed Captain Jack was suddenly staring down at him too.

Rose's mouth was moving, but she was _so hard to hear_ through the coughing and the rushing in his ears and the severe buzzing in his head…

He felt her hand on his mouth. _Huh. That's weird, why is her hand there? Why not her lips…._ he thought, with a grin that would've been visible if he hadn't been coughing.

 _Her hand smells good. Like… roses…_ he thought, then laughed a little, but again, heard nothing but buzzing in his head and rushing in his ears.

His vision was getting really obscured, really cloudy, and he had no idea why. The last thing he remembered was her hand leaving his mouth and coming into his field of vision, bad as it was. She had quite a lot of red on her hand…


	15. Chapter 15

Rose's hand started shaking, and she felt like her heart would beat out of her chest, as she watched the Doctor's eyes going dim, like a light in them was going out. Her hand at his mouth was covered in blood, which he had coughed up. "Doctor…" she started.

"ROSE, I'm gonna need you to MOVE OUT OF THE WAY," said Captain Jack, pushing her away. Jack reached into the cabinet with one arm, and after a bit of searching, pulled out an oxygen mask and hooked it up to part of the TARDIS that she hadn't seen a minute ago, which was probably an oxygen line.

"NO, hang on, we just need to let him get out of his… seizure…" she blinked, and realized after a moment that he had NOT gone into a seizure after all. "Wait, why isn't he in a seizure now? He usually…"

"Rose," said Jack, "could you please be quiet for a minute and let me work?" he was fitting a blood pressure cuff on the Doctor's arm. Jack put his hands up to the Doctor's eyes, pulled up his eyelids and checked his eyes, one at a time, with a keychain light he had fished out of his pocket. "Go into the console room and hit the button closest to the lever nearest to the door and tell me what comes onto the screen, could ya?"

Rose opened her mouth, but after what she would call a death glare from Captain Jack, she hustled on into the console room. Looking at the console, she momentarily blanked and panic panged in her stomach. "Which lever?" she yelled back to Captain Jack.

"The one nearest to the door!" he yelled back, his tone getting a bit more urgent.

"Which door?" She yelled, "the one I just walked out of, or…"

"DAMMIT, ROSE, JUST PRESS THE NEAREST BUTTON AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS," He yelled, even louder than when he had first yelled.

Rose saw a smallish green button. Thinking, _here goes…_ , she hit it and the screen changed.

An outline of the human figure popped up on the screen, one that had hair just like the Doctor's. It had a bunch of red lights blinking.

Rose ran back into where the Doctor and Jack were, and started to speak, but Jack cut her off. "Nevermind, it came on a screen in here," He glanced at the screen. "Fortunately the TARDIS already thought to run a diagnostic scan" He ran his eyes over what was on the screen.

"If it's a diagnostic scan why are there all the red li-" Started Rose.

"SHUT UP, Rose," said Captain Jack, looking at the screen. "DAMN….."

Rose had started to cry a little, and, catching a glimpse of her, Jack's expression softened and he pulled her to his side, her facing the Doctor, and put his arms on both her shoulders. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," he said hurriedly, then spun back towards the Doctor. "I'm just trying to… help him…"

Jack put a couple fingers on the Doctor's wrist, apparently checking his pulse. He got a scarily grave look on his face.

"We just need to slap him, right?" she said. "that's what he said. Right?" she started pushing Captain Jack out of the way. But when she looked him in the eye, his expression wasn't one of approval, or even a good expression.

"Rose…" he started. "his pulse is down, it's extremely slow, I don't…"

Rose slapped the Doctor's face, hard. He didn't wake up. She slapped him again. Captain Jack started quickly pulling her away from him.

"Rose, don't…"

"HE SAID JUST SLAP HIM…" she cried, tears streaming down her face, slapping him as best she could until she could no longer reach him, as Jack had her arms firmly in his grip.

"Rose," he said.

She wailed, her heart burning. Why wasn't he waking up?

"ROSE," said Captain Jack, pulling her to look at him. She finally complied.

"Rose, he's… he's dying. N… no… SHHHHHH," he said, trying to be heard over her blubbering. "Rose, you have to be calm for me. C'mon," He said. "how quickly did it take last time for him to regenerate?"

Rose tried her best to calm down enough to talk. She finally managed to sputter out a sentence. "I don't know… last time it just happened, he just exploded into light…" she looked at the Doctor. So did Captain Jack.

Jack bit his lip. "Well, it could be that the disease is slowing the process way down… if not stopping it," he added, under his breath. But Rose heard him.

Rose sat there, staring at the Doctor. _He can't… he can't leave me…._ she thought.

Suddenly she felt a kind of tickling on her subconscious, almost like a name she couldn't come up with, and she had an idea. She stood up. Jack looked on questioningly.

"UM" she yelled, then quieted down and focused on that tickle in her mind. "Um… I'm trying to talk to you. The TARDIS.

Captain Jack was looking at her like she had grown another eye.

But then she felt another tickle in her head, almost like a response. She then knew it MUST be. The TARDIS.

"I have to help the Doctor," she said. "Do you… do you have any way of keeping him alright for a little while? I dunno, something like… a…"

She then heard three beeps and a clatter, and then she saw there, just at the very back of the sick bay, a couple stretchers back from the Doctor, something big and fairly oval-shaped come out of a hidden compartment in the ceiling, connected via vires. It looked big enough to sleep in.

Suddenly Rose understood.

"OH!" she cried, happy something was finally going (semi)right.

Captain Jack stood up from his kneeling position and looked at Rose curiously. "You didn't… no!" He smiled a huge smile and ran over to the oval-shaped-thing. He pressed a few places on the top of it and it opened up, like cracking an egg in half.

"IT'S A STASIS POD!" they both yelled at the same time, then laughed.

 _Thank you_ , said Rose in her head.

Jack helped Rose carry the Doctor over to the stasis pod, and after pulling off the oxygen mask that had been on him and putting on the one from the pod, they set to work with the wires.

"What do these do?" She wondered aloud.

Jack held up the end of one, which had a sticker-like thing on it. "These are common, they're used to help track his pulse and brain activity and stuff… although I've never seen this many."

Rose shrugged. "Just the TARDIS."

She unbuttoned the Doctor's shirt with a faint sense of deja-vu. Then, she and Jack put the sticker-wire things all over his chest and forehead, which Captain Jack said would be the correct places to put them.

After they had him all connected, Jack went to close the top of the pod down, but Rose held him off for a minute. She kissed the Doctor's forehead. Then they closed the top of the pod.

Captain Jack's expression turned subdued. "Rose… you DO know… the stasis pod can't keep him from regenerating for too long… the most it can do is delay it."

Rose's enthusiasm at getting the stasis pod waned. "For how long?"

Jack apparently thought about it for a second. "Well, I'm not entirely sure, not being a Time Lord myself, but I'd guess that, at most, it'd give him about an hour… but more likely a lot less than that. He's pretty bad, Rose…"

"HOW LONG?"

Captain Jack looked her in the eye. "Less than twenty minutes."

Rose swallowed. She had no more than twenty minutes to go back to that ship, stop the Krillitanes, get a cure, and get back to the Doctor…

"What now?" said Captain Jack.

 _She'd have to do it. And she_ WOULD, she thought. She led him into the console room. "We need to go back in time, to that ship."

"How?"

Rose silently asked the TARDIS to tell her what to do, as she ran her hands over the console. Then, when her hand passed over a lever, she got a momentary, almost tickling shock, and she yanked her hand away.

"Oh." said Jack, noticing the shock her hand had just received from that particular lever. "Well, okay…" HE took a deep breath. "Let's do it: try to fly the TARDIS- with NO knowledge of how to do it- onto a hostile alien ship chock full of deadly diseases in a suicide mission."

He smiled. "I'm game," he said.

Rose grinned, then thought of the Doctor and the grin went away, replaced by a determined look.

She grasped the lever that had given her the shock, and held her breath.

She pulled it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! I am SO SORRY I haven't posted a new chapter in SO long! But, the story isn't done yet, as I kinda left it on a cliff hanger... sorry about that :/**

 **But here's a NEW CHAPTER for you all! I know it's short, but there is PLENTY more to come, and soon too, so stay tuned! :)**

The TARDIS started shaking and, after a minute of tossing them around, shuddered to a stop. Rose drew in a deep breath and took a hold of the screen. After a few beeps, an image of the outside of the TARDIS appeared on it.

It was in a dark room that looked a lot similar to the hallway they had landed in the first time they had arrived on the ship…although Rose couldn't be sure. _Does every room and hallway in this ship HAVE to look the same?! AND be dimly-lit?!_

Captain Jack swallowed audibly. "What's your plan?" He asked.

Rose bit her lip.

"DON'T TELL ME you don't even have a PLAN?!" cried Jack, exasperated. He cradled his face with his hands and groaned.

"What do you think I am?" yelled Rose, her hands out. "OMNIPOTENT and ALL-KNOWING?!" She grasped the bridge of her nose and breathed in slowly, trying to calm herself down. "Look, at least I know what we need to do- get in there and find a way to talk to them and find a cure without them realizing who we are…"

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Captain Jack, looking a bit irritated, but focused.

Rose spied the Doctor's trench coat, which he had taken off when he originally took off his tie. It sat next to the console on the floor. Rose remembered something.

She ran over to it and searched in it's inside pocket. Finding what she had been looking for, she pulled out the sonic screwdriver with a flourish. She put it in her jeans pocket.

"We'll have to blend in, in order to get to the room where they keep the cure." _If there was one_ , she thought, then pushed it out of her mind. There had to be a cure, there just had to.

Captain Jack studied the screen showing a view of the outside of the TARDIS.

"Looks kinda like a supply room" he said.

Rose walked over and stared intently at the screen, trying to formulate a plan. And fortunately, that's when, finally, a plan clicked.

"If this IS a supply room, it should have at least SOME of everything in it…" Rose walked over to the door, motioning for Jack to come along.

"What are you thinking?" asked Jack, as they peeked out the door, carefully.

After realizing the room was empty and the door to the room was shut, Rose walked out, and rummaged through a pile of clothes that had, supposedly, just been shoved in there, sitting on top of a box. She found a veil and dress like the Cat-nurses wore, pulled it out, and started to throw it on.

"The Doctor said it was the Krillitanes and the Cat-nurses. If I can blend in as a cat-nurse- with a veil- we might be able to get somewhere."

Jack shook his head slowly, clearly understanding where she was coming from.

"Yeah… I can be your patient!" He ran over, quietly, into a darker corner of the room that Rose hadn't seen yet, and rolled out a medical gurney. He hopped up to lie on it, getting under a white sheet. "HOPEFULLY- no one will be the wiser. We'll have to find a way to get them out of the room though… so we can look around for the cure. We might attract suspicion if we just ask for it outright…"

Rose thought for a moment. "I think the girl with the green eyes- the one who they've captured, who stole your vortex manipulator- might be able to help us."

"I hope so," said Captain Jack. He motioned with his hands. "C'mon, wheel me out- we can think of the rest on the way….

Rose swallowed nervously, then did as he said.

Jack moved the white sheet so it was over his head, but before he did, he grabbed her hand.

"Rose.. hurry. I don't think we have much time left, before the Doctor will have to regenerate… if he still can…"

Rose's stomach turned nervously. _She'd have to be brave. Like the man who was relying on her…_

By no means was she confident. In fact, she was terrified. But then an image came into her head, of the Doctor, smiling and grabbing her hand like he would always do.

 _She could do this._

 _For him._


End file.
